To ask the Minister of Health to detail how he will improve the process and time taken to assess and administer enteral nutrition tubes for children, particularly when they are requested by their parents.

This is a specialist clinical procedure and each assessment must be personal to each child. Each assessment will therefore be patient specific.

Each assessment is carried out by a multi-disciplinary team of clinical experts and they must ensure any decisions made are appropriate and safe for each child.

Where it is a deemed appropriate to then carry out this procedure the relevant child will be added to the waiting list for the procedure percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) and this will be managed through normal processes.

There are just over 100 children currently on a waiting list for this procedure. This is a complex procedure for children requiring additional support and because of this is it is only done at Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children (RBHSC) within the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust (BHSCT).

It must be noted though that the views and inputs of parents and carers are crucial in any decision-making process and this will be considered along with the appropriateness and safety of each clinical decision.

As this is a specialist, clinical procedure we will be informed by clinical experts in this area on safe and appropriate improvements in this assessment.